UI – Part 398 – Vigilantes in Islam

The Pillars

Under Islamic Law, Sharia, there are stringent requirements.  Praying 5 times each time, is one, saying the Shahadah, essentially a daily reaffirmation of a commitment to Allah and the Prophet Muhammad, there are dress codes, those for women being onerous, especially in areas where outside temperatures can reach extremes, and there is questioning or doubting Islam.  Certainly there are many more.  To stay within the boundaries control is needed.  This begins at home.

Islamic Police

“It is almost always the immediate family that starts the persecution of freethinkers, of those who would ask questions or propose something new,” quoting Ayaan Hirsi Ali, from experience and reported to her readers in her book, Heretic. Part of Islamic development is being a policeman, a child reporting to a parent that a sibling is not being observant or asking stupid questions, like “Why must I do these things everyday, and 5 times a day?”  Parents too observe their offspring and may go so far as to commit acts of violence, honor killing, should a daughter look at a man, fall in love, or even look our a window when not supposed to do so.  Ayaan Hirsi Ali refers to this as “a grassroots system of religious vigilantism.”  But it goes beyond religion, the focus becomes the observance of Islamic Law.

One Muslim is there to watch another Muslim to insure they are being properly Muslim, knowing the one being watched is a watcher too.

Sura 3.104, “Let there arise out of you a band of people inviting to all that is good, enjoining what is right, and forbidding what is wrong: They are the ones to attain felicity.” But will they be happy?

The Private Life of a Muslim (Living Under the Covers)

The private lives of Muslims may very well differ greatly from their public lives, even their public persona.  Living in America a Muslim enjoys certain freedoms, but by not observing all the Laws of Islam, Sharia, they are no less a heretic, even an apostate, just not as exposed to the Islamic police that might be strolling their neighborhoods, which would be the case if they were in Iran, Saudi Arabia, Pakistan, Afghanistan, Somalia, and other Islamic theocracies or secular Islamic Nations where Islam is the religion specified by the State. The private life a Muslim represent an internal struggle to break-out, as no one can know your true feelings, not even a friend or family member.  A Muslim can be in the closet as a homosexual, but also as a Christian or atheist.  If they come-out the results can be the same – punishment, even death.   The consequences can be severe and you can never trust someone to not be a closet-vigilante.  What a way to live?

In the United Kingdom, London, it is possible to run into Muslim men with sticks patrolling to strike the morally defective Muslim they encounter.  Call them zealots.  In a sidewalk cafe you might be enjoying a cocktail when suddenly a member of Anjem Choudary’s self-imposed religious police vigilantes wields their wand to toss your glass over or onto the ground.  They are probably most active in Muslim concentrated areas where even the Bobbies let them do their thing.

Caged in an Islamic Society or No-Go Zone

So as a Muslim your heart, mind and soul may be telling you one thing, but your society is requiring of you another.

A Muslim is provided the same gift of independent thought as any other human born in this world, they just may end up living where they can never use God’s gift without subjecting themselves to severe chastisement.  The can grow into an automaton of Muslim Law, knowing they cannot think out of the box, the box containing the Quran, the Hadiths and the examples of Muhammad. Their hatred towards the infidel is as a daily chant inside their heads. The brain of the fundamental Muslim, the Islamist, is trained to hate.  They cannot see the world for what it is, its beauty, is diversity, its opportunity, and its potential for freedom, as the bell in their head would ring, that is wrong, ding, dong, ding, dong.  If you are so bewitched, the witch in you may die if exposed.  And not by your own hands.

Polls are taken asking Muslims how they feel about Sharia Law.  If you were a Muslim how would you answer?  You need not think about it, there is but one answer.  But if you do think about it, the answer might be different in your private self, but not in your public proclamation.  That is Islam.

For a Muslim everywhere they live, if in Asia, the Middle East, Iran, even in Europe and the United States, where there are other Muslims, they will be watched.  The Islamic police will be seeking those that violate the Laws of Islam.  No wonder a Muslim fears their own. Vigilante justice is as honor killing.  However the one wielding the sword is not Allah (god) but just another sinner, another Muslim, possibly even a parent, who being self-righteous, will indulge themselves in the blood of their own.

Grace and Peace